Subjects

Notes

Abstract:

Sunflower County Freedom Project Director Greg McCoy talks with Stacy Nelson about educational opportunities and equality in Mississippi, and their college preparatory program. References are made to Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and Charles McLaurin.

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The Foundation for The Gator Nation An Equal Opportunity Institution Samuel Proctor Oral History Program College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Program Director : Dr. Paul Ortiz 241 Pugh Hall Technology Coordinator : Deborah Hendrix PO Box 115215 Gainesville, FL 32611 352 392 7168 352 846 1983 Fax The Samuel Proctor O ral History Program (SPOHP) was founded by Dr. Samuel Proctor at the University of Florida in 1967. Its original projects were collections centered around Florida history with the purpose of preserving eyewitness accounts of economic, social, political, re ligious and intellectual life in Florida and the South. In the 45 years since its inception, SPOHP has collected over 5,000 interviews in its archives. Transcribed interviews are available through SPOHP for use by research scholars, students, journalists and other interested groups. Material is frequently used for theses, dissertations, articles, books, documentaries, museum displays, and a variety of other public uses. As standard oral history practice dictates, SPOHP recommends that researchers refer t o both the transcript and audio of an interview when conducting their work. A selection of interviews are available online here through the UF Digital Collections and the UF Smathers Library system. Oral history interview t ranscripts available on the UF D igital Collections may be in draft or final format. SPOHP transcribers create interview transcripts by listen ing to the ori ginal oral history interview recording and typing a verbatim d ocument of it. The transcript is written with careful attention to refl ect original grammar and word choice of each interviewee; s ubjective or editorial changes are not made to their speech. The draft trans cript can also later undergo a later final edit to ensure accuracy in spelling and format I nterviewees can also provide their own spelli ng corrections SPOHP transcribers refer to the Merriam program specific transcribing style guide, accessible For more information about SPOHP, visit http://oral.histor y.ufl.edu or call the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program office at 352 392 7168. October 2013

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MFP 002 Interviewee: Greg McCoy Interviewer: Stac e y Nelson Date of Interview: September 12, 2008 N: All right. Will you state your name, please? M: County Freedom Project. N: Cool. And what does the Sunflower County Freedom Project do? M: Well, basically, we use the legacy and the hist ory of the c ivil rights m ovement to inspire, educate, and develop youth leaders who will be and the legacy of t he civil rights movement one of the ways we express oral histories and our legacy through the civil rights m ovement. N: Very cool. Is there anything besides plays that you do? I mean M: Yeah, we do plays and we do video ; we d o video production. So those are two expressions, but primarily So, the majority of the time, we focus on the idea that education is the seed of freedom, and if we want our students to be free, we need to make sure t doing plays ; N: Very cool. Can you describe how your students change? When they come in as opposed to when they leave. M: Well, the biggest impact of our program is providing students the opportunity to exist in a corps of fellow students who have similar goals

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MFP 00 2 ; McCoy ; Page 2 s o, kind of utilizing the idea of positive peer pressure. And if a student comes into our program as a seventh grader, the most valu able aspect of college and says, hey, seventh grader, you can do this because I did it. of success and ho w they can d developing appreciation through oral histories, through our plays and c ivil rights studies of people like Charles McLaurin and other c ivil rights veterans not only peo ple before them who have done it, but people who will come after. N: Okay, very cool. Do you have any personal conne ctions, through family or anybody that went through the civil rights movement ? M: t here. N: Oh, okay. M: through our program and through our documentaries that they produce through oral histo participated in a number of ways. One particular student who played Charles McLaurin, his name is Shaquille Lafleur When we did a documentary, he was able to do research and found out that his grandmother, Annie Ma e Strong King, would house c ivil rights veterans c ivil rights like Charles McLaurin, in her home, and cook meals. So that

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MFP 00 2 ; McCoy ; Page 3 is to find out more about our students and where their legacies lie. N: Okay, ver M: Well I was born in New York and I stayed there till I was fourteen. Then I went to North Carolina for high school and college, and I came here right after college in 2004. So about four years. N: And what brought you here to the area? M: Well, I did an internship with the program I work for now, the Freedom Project, so I was hooked pretty much the second week, third week I was down here. So I just came back immediately to work with the Freedom Project and, basically, jus t to figure out what could I do? What could I add to the program to make it sustainable, make it the type of program that, when our students participate, t hey have this sense of family. T hey want to come back an d work with us, so we have a lot of our students who graduate high school, go to college, and then come back during the Anything more than anything I can do as a person from North Carol ina or New York, they can do t en times more as residents of Sunflower County, most powerful. N: Very cool. So, what does the Freedom Project plan to do in the future? M: Well, the next s tep of our program is to develop our alumni association.

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MFP 00 2 ; McCoy ; Page 4 started in [19]99; we went year round in 2002. So, basically, we have our oldest students who graduated and are going to coll ege are now want to make sure that we have at least one fellowship available so they can come back and actually work full time in our organization. To us, Ultimately, we want to continue our mission of graduating students, having kids go to schools all over the country. B ut the next step, particularly, is to figure out how they can come back and be permanent citizens in the area or least temporarily. Beca use one of the biggest ch allenges in the area like this Sunflower C ounty, any area of poverty So if what the ultimate goal is. N : And then the financial, maybe, all of the alumni M: what they can come back and contribute. We have plenty of people that donate money and different things like that. We could al ways use more, whoever hears this. But yeah, more importantly, is definitely they can have a face ; yeah, if that answers your ques tion. N: think. If today, can you still . how does the c ivil rights struggle still affect how things are today?

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MFP 00 2 ; McCoy ; Page 5 M: the Mississi ppi Delta, but also around the country, between public schools because of tax bases, so I think that really getting a sense of equality, having that same opportunity I can give you a spe cific example. One of my students goes to a school, a high school in the area, and they cannot exam, they would, at the most, make a fifty unless they studied on their own. 50%, right? So, if you study American history from 1865 or up to 1865 same educational opportunities. So out how to compensate for that o r, eventually, eliminate that gap. So I as ed ucation goes. N: M: that gets all straightened out, then we do what we can, you know? N: Yeah. Those were pretty good closing words, but do you have anything else that you want to say?

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MFP 00 2 ; McCoy ; Page 6 M: No. I just do want to encourage any people that hear this to, like we said earlier in our program, to figure out a way they can personally contribute to e to do it. In the words of SNCC, if not you, then who? If not now, then when? N: Very nice. Okay, thank you very much. M: Thank you, and good lu ck with your project. [End of interview] Transcribed by: Diana Dombrowski, August 15, 2013 Audit edited by: Sarah Blanc August 28, 2013 Final edited by: Diana Dombrowski, November 4, 2013

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MFP 002 Interviewee: Greg McCoy Interviewer: Stacy Nelson Date of Interview: September 12, 2008 N: All right. Will you state your name, please? M: County Freedom Project. N: Cool. And what does the Sunflower County Freedom Project do? M: Well, basically, we use the legacy and the hi story of the c ivil rights m ovement to inspire, educate, and develop youth leaders who will be and the legacy of the c ivil rights m ovement one of the ways we express oral histories and our legacy through the c ivil rights m ovement. N: Very cool. Is there anything besides plays that you do? I mean M: Yeah, we do plays and we do video ; w e do video production. So those are two expressions, but primarily So, the majority of the time, we focus on the idea that education is the seed of freedom, and if we want our students to be free, we need to make sur doing plays ; N: Very cool. Can you describe how your students change? When they come in as opposed to when they leave. M: Well, the bigg est impact of our program is providing students the opportunity to exist in a corps of fellow students who have similar goals

PAGE 2

MFP 00 2 ; McCoy ; Page 2 s o, kind of utilizing the idea of positive peer pressure. And if a student comes into our program as a seventh grader, the most v aluable aspect of college and says, hey, seventh grader, you can do this because I did it. of success and how they can d developing appreciation through oral histories, through our plays and c ivil rights studies of people like Charles McLaurin and other c ivil rights veterans so why they can do what they have done. Because i peo ple before them who have done it, but people who will come after. N: Okay, very cool. Do you have any personal conne ctions, through family or anybody that went through the c ivil rights m ovement ? M: plant here. N: Oh, okay. M: through our program and through our documentaries that they produce through oral participated in a number of ways. One particular student who played Charles McLaurin, his name is Shaquille Lafleur When we did a documentary, he was able to do research and found out that his grandmot her, Annie Ma e Strong King, would house c ivil rights veterans c ivil rights like Charles McLaurin, in her home, and cook meals. So that

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MFP 00 2 ; McCoy ; Page 3 is to find out more about our students and where their legacies lie. N: Oka M: Well I was born in New York and I stayed there till I was fourteen. Then I went to North Carolina for high school and college, and I came here right after college in 2004. So e for about four years. N: And what brought you here to the area? M: Well, I did an internship with the program I work for now, the Freedom Project, so I was hooked pretty much the second week, third week I was down here. So I just came back immediately to work with the Freedom Project and, basically, jus t to figure out what could I do? What could I add to the program to make it sustainable, make it the type of program that, when our students participate, t hey have this sense of family. T hey want to come back and work with us, so we have a lot of our students who graduate high school, go to college, and then come back during the Anything more than anything I can do as a person from Nort h Carolina or New York, they can do t en times more as residents of Sunflower County, most powerful. N: Very cool. So, what does the Freedom Project plan to do in the future? M: Well, th e next step of our program is to develop our alumni association.

PAGE 4

MFP 00 2 ; McCoy ; Page 4 started in [19]99; we went year round in 2002. So, basically, we have our oldest students who graduated and are going to college are now want to make sure that we have at least one fellowship available so they can come back and actually work full time in our organization. To us, ext step. Ultimately, we want to continue our mission of graduating students, having kids go to schools all over the country. B ut the next step, particularly, is to figure out how they can come back and be permanent citizens in the area or least temporari ly. Because one of the biggest ch allenges in the area like this Sunflower C ounty, any area of poverty So if what the ultimate go al is. N: And then the financial, maybe, all of the alumni M: what they can come back and contribute. We have plenty of people that donate money and different things like that. We could always use more, whoever hears this. But yeah, more importantly, is definitely they can have a face ; yeah, if that answers your question. N: think. If today, can you still how does the c ivil rights struggle still affect how things are today?

PAGE 5

MFP 00 2 ; McCoy ; Page 5 M: th e Mississippi Delta, but also around the country, between public schools because of tax bases, so I think that really getting a sense of equality, having that same opportunity I can give you a specific example. One of my students goes to a school, a high school in the area, and they cannot e xam, they would, at the most, make a fifty unless they studied on their own. 50%, right? So, if you study American history from 1865 or up to 1865 given the same educational opportunities. So out how to compensate for that o r, eventually, eliminate that gap. So I far as education goes. N: M: tha t gets all straightened out, then we do what we can, you know? N: Yeah. Those were pretty good closing words, but do you have anything else that you want to say?

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MFP 00 2 ; McCoy ; Page 6 M: No. I just do want to encourage any people that hear this to, like we said earlier in our program, to figure out a way they can personally contribute to e to do it. In the words of SNCC, if not you, then who? If not now, then when? N: Very nice. Okay, thank you very much. M: T hank you, and good lu ck with your project. [End of interview] Transcribed by: Diana Dombrowski, August 15, 2013 Audit edited by: Sarah Blanc August 28, 2013 Final edited by: Diana Dombrowski, November 4, 2013